Star Trek’s iconic speech about space being the ‘final’ mysterious frontier holds true forty years on and I’d be willing to bet that’s why the interstellar Mass Effect series holds court over so many imaginations.

Unfortunately, developer Bioware has reeled out nothing but the smallest of tidbits for the next game. Having piled up the scant details currently available, here’s what we’ve managed to piece together so far.

1. A whole new world(s)

In Bioware’s E3 2014 video where they dished the dirt on what’s been going on behind closed doors, it was mentioned that we’d be poking around an entirely different setting for our next journey. While that doesn’t mean we won’t return to old haunts like the Citadel or the haggard Omega, the majority of our time will be spent braving, as they say, the final frontier.

‘One of the things that fans have told us most about what they want in the next Mass Effect game is to go somewhere new, and to move forward,’ Executive Producer Casey Hudson pointed out. ‘We’re taking you to a whole new region of space’.

2. And who are you supposed to be?

Continuing with the theme of keeping things fresh, Bioware mentioned in the same video that they’d be introducing a fresh batch of characters for us to meet and ‘fall in love with’. There’s the possibility of small cameos from established heroes and villains, but if they do crop up it doesn’t seem like they’ll take a big role.

That makes plenty of sense. Players’ stories dovetailed by the end of the trilogy, so it’d be difficult to add in favourites when they might have ‘died’ during the events of previous Mass Effects.

3. On the road again

Three words could have described the Mass Effect’s space rover, the Mako: bouncy, stubborn and difficult. If Bioware has its way, we’ll be changing that vocabulary before they’re done with the next instalment.

Making its grand return, the Mako has been tweaked so that it’s easier to control. We’ll be free to customise it as well, because apparently it’s going to be a regularly featured part of the game.

4. Bring me that horizon

Exploration is set to be a key pillar of the next game, and the planets we’ll land on seem as if they’ll be significantly larger than before. As pointed out in the E3 footage, ‘this world is so vast that you can kinda continue on to the horizon and there’s more and more experience for the player to enjoy’.

Backing this up was Hudson’s own addition that we could visit areas on the other side of the galaxy, just to see what’s down there. From what that indicates, our adventures amongst the stars may be more free-form than usual.

5. Oh captain, my captain

No matter how much we wish it were otherwise, Commander Shepard is officially gone. Having bowed out gracefully (or not, depending on your ending) in Mass Effect 3, she/he won’t be the hero of the next story – though it’s possible they could be name-dropped as a sneaky nod to fans. Because this isn’t a continuation of the previous story, we apparently shouldn’t call it Mass Effect 4 either.

When it comes to the protagonist this time around, they could well be human once again. In the Escapist’s video covering Bioware’s San Diego Comic-Con panel, it was revealed that they’d said the main character ‘will be human’.

6. Coming to a store near you… not anytime soon

Popping our hopes, the Escapist also noted that Bioware thinks the game is some way off; from what they said, it doesn’t sound as if we’ll be playing it until the end of 2016 (or mid-2017) at the earliest.

7. Old buddy, old pal

Going off what was said at the Comic-Con panel, competitive multiplayer could make an appearance but co-op takes the biscuit. That suggests we’ll see a return from the arena mode of the last entry, or possibly the ability to leap into each others’ sessions more directly. After all, they feel that ‘fans of the series will be surprised at just how far we’re going’.

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